SINGAPORE: A freelance hairdresser found a side business operating as a middleman harvesting bank accounts from her friends and acquaintances that she would sell to unknown individuals.
The bank accounts wound up in the hands of scam syndicates who used them to handle scam proceeds of about S$3 million (US$2.26 million) that came from almost 1,000 victims.
Heng Pei Jing, a 40-year-old woman, was sentenced to four years’ jail (1 year and 36 months) on Thursday (Dec 21) for her roles in the crimes.
She pleaded guilty to 12 charges including conspiring to acquire criminal benefits, providing banking details without authorisation and consuming methamphetamine.
Another 26 charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that Heng was a middleman for the sale and rental of bank accounts to “unknown individuals”. She would contact her friends and acquaintances, offering money if they sold or rented their bank accounts to her.
Those who took the bait would give Heng their usernames, PIN and iBanking login details, and Heng would forward the information to the unknown individuals.
The compromised bank accounts – 19 accounts across banks like the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), United Overseas Bank and the Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation – were used by scam syndicates to receive and transfer scam proceeds.
In total, the bank accounts were used to receive about S$3 million in scam proceeds from 996 victims in 2020 and 2021.
THE FACEBOOK POST
Heng’s foray into crime began in September 2020, when she saw a Facebook post by a user looking for unused bank accounts or iBanking tokens.
She contacted the poster and spoke to a person named Mike, who offered to pay her S$400 for each bank account she could obtain for him.
Heng took up the offer and made a post on Telegram offering to pay S$400 for bank accounts to be sold or rented out to her monthly.
One person responded and sold her his UOB and OCBC bank accounts for S$1,000.
Heng forwarded the details of this person’s bank accounts to Mike. The UOB account was used to receive at least S$118,909 in scam proceeds from at least seven victims in 2021, while the OCBC account received at least S$848,489 from at least six victims in the same period.
The scam proceeds were transferred out.
In 2020, Heng got to know a man named Mohd Amirudin Mohd Shafiee through a mutual acquaintance. She would lend Amirudin money and they became good friends.
THE FAILED PLAN TO HIJACK A MALAYSIAN SCAM SYNDICATE
Sometime around April 2021, Heng’s friend, Lee Yong Sheng, proposed a plan to hijack money that was going to a Malaysian scam syndicate.
Heng approached Amirudin with the plan, to borrow his bank account to hijack those funds. The plan was to obtain the scam proceeds by resetting the login credentials after funds flowed in.
In April 2021, Amirudin gave his iBanking login details to Heng, receiving S$800 from her.
Heng passed Amirudin’s POSB account to the Malaysian scam syndicate for their use. Investigations later revealed that the account was under the control of unknown individuals from around Apr 19 to Apr 23 in 2021.
During this period, the unknown individuals made at least 72 transactions using the bank account, with deposits totalling at least S$286,491.78 and withdrawals of about S$268,000.
Among the deposited sums was an amount of S$50,000 which was from a scam victim.
Around Apr 22, 2021, the trio found out that a large sum of money was going to Amirudin’s account. Amirudin and Heng went to an ATM in Rivervale Mall to reset Amirudin’s login credentials and deny the scam syndicate any further access to the account.
This way, they could obtain the money that was in the bank account. After Amirudin reset the iBanking login credentials, he transferred about S$54,000 that was in the account to another UOB account.
However, the UOB account was frozen by the police before any funds could be withdrawn.
The bank accounts that Heng obtained for use by unknown individuals received thousands of dollars in scam proceeds. The largest single amount was S$1.08 million from 581 scam victims contained in a DBS account belonging to a man named Asura Azeal A Salahudeen.
Asura had sold a total of six bank accounts to Heng, for S$500 per bank account and S$1,000 per corporate bank account. He wanted to earn fast cash, the court heard.
HENG’S ARREST
Heng was arrested by the police and Central Narcotics Bureau on Aug 2, 2021. Her urine samples tested positive for meth and she admitted to consuming the drug since early July 2021.
After Heng was arrested, Asura called Amirudin for advice on what to do with the bank accounts.
Amirudin suggested that they close the accounts but withdraw the money for their personal use.
Asura agreed and the pair closed the accounts on Aug 13, 2021, withdrawing about S$70,500 that was left in them, that was likely to be scam proceeds.
When Heng was released from remand, she discussed how to distribute the money with the rest. She kept a sum of S$47,000 for herself.
To date, the police have not recovered the sum of S$70,500.
Amirudin and Asura have been sentenced to jail for their involvement.
The prosecution sought a jail term between about four and five years for Heng, pointing to the substantial amounts of scam proceeds that were transferred through the compromised bank accounts, which scammers and criminal syndicates “put to very effective use”.
Heng was a middleman in an extensive scheme, helping to “harvest” compromised bank accounts which she provided to syndicates and unknown third parties, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Eric Hu, Ronnie Ang and Benjamin Low.
Defence lawyer S S Dhillon asked for three-and-a-half years’ jail for his client, a divorcee with a teenage daughter. Heng’s father left the family about 30 years ago, and she lives with her mother, said the lawyer.
He said Heng was an intermediary who would connect people offering fast cash online to her friends who needed money and were willing to “lend” their bank accounts.
He said she was paid a commission of 10 per cent of what her friends were paid, which was not “much”.
The fear she felt from her arrest, police investigations and court attendances have “completely shell-shocked Heng”, who will not dare to be “anything less than a law-abiding citizen henceforth”, said Mr Dhillon.